[MCR] Monahsee Mtns. - Perry River - Dec.27-30-08

Spent a few days in this area which is close to the popular Gorge Road so I thought I would pass on what I saw for people heading out over the holidays.

 

The Dec.24^th layer was buried over 60cms, by two successive low density snow falls of 20 and 45cms. before a layer of freezing rain coated the surface of the snow on the afternoon of Dec.27^th. This crust varied from 2mm. to close to shin bruising 10mm. thick and was quickly buried by another 20cms. of snow overnight.

 

Continued snow improved the skiing and by the time I left on the evening of Dec.30^th we had accumulated 50-60cms of snow over the 27^th crust and close to a 100cms. over the Dec. 24^th facets. During my time there all the snow above and below the crust remained fairly unsettled and seemed to lack the stiffness (slab properties) to produce any avalanches and we saw very minimal natural activity. Regardless we approached the terrain by limiting our exposure to larger open steep features.

 

We were waiting for things to stiffen up and it now sounds as though that is definitely the case and I suspect things would be significantly more touchy than the previous few days.

 

Scott Davis

ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

 

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